Cooking – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Taking the week off…

Picture Kermit the Frog flailing his arms wildly about. That’s how my week has felt, between work (somehow more hectic with Monday having been a holiday), medical appointments (physical therapy sessions for osteoarthritis in both knees), and trying to pick all these tomatoes (two for the bowl, one for the mouth…) before they go bad.

A large strainer filled with bite-sized tomatoes, a good selection of yellow and red.

So I’m taking the week off, at least in terms of meaningful content. I need to blend the tomato soup now. (Quick recipe: 2 cups of bite-sized tomatoes, 1/2 a sauteed large onion, 2 small sweet peppers, a handful of thyme, single sage leaf, some minced garlic, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and a handful of cashews, left in the slow cooker all day with a carton of vegetable broth.)

A banana crisis

One recent morning, I turned around after washing my breakfast dishes and realized that several of our bananas had partially peeled themselves, falling from where they had hung on the banana stand. A single banana, I could have handled as a snack, but I was looking at four bananas with a stripe of peel removed. I had an early appointment, so I grabbed the entire bunch (including one unpeeled) and shoved them in the fridge. By the time I got home, the collection was down to three open bananas, which is a workable quantity.

Whole wheat French toast topped with caramelized bananas and mulberry compote

As I’ve said before, when life gives you lemons, make lemon meringue pie. In this case, life handed me a trio of bananas that weren’t overripe yet. Typically I wait for overripe before making banana bread. Instead, I considered banana pancakes or crepes for breakfast the next day, but ultimately decided on French toast topped with caramelized bananas and a mulberry compote.

My berry compotes are super simple: berries, a bit of water (add more as desired during cooking), and a dash of salt. Berries are naturally sweet, so I don’t bother adding sugar. They cook on low, stirred occasionally, while I prepare everything else.

The caramelized bananas are similarly simple: a tablespoon of butter and a banana. Melt the butter, add the sliced bananas, flip once or twice. Turn down the heat when the bananas start looking like they’re going to melt.

French toast has always been a bit of a challenge, finding the right mix between the egg and milk mixture and the absorbency of the bread. I ended up using three eggs for four pieces of wheat bread. I was eyeballing the milk, so I might guess a quarter cup per egg.

And that’s how I resolved my banana crisis.

Cooking like a pirate

When you learn to cook, you typically follow recipes – whether in writing or instructions from someone else – usually as precisely as possible. I recall a kids’ cookbook growing up that included basic recipes for things like scrambled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches, and I do mean basic: bread, American cheese slices, and butter (for the outside of the bread). As I grew more comfortable with each recipe, I began to alter it. The American cheese became a combination of cheeses (typically Havarti and Pepper Jack), I stopped buttering the outside of the bread, and began adding vegetables or even sandwich meat. Yes, you could argue that it then becomes an “[insert sandwich meat] sandwich” instead of a “grilled cheese sandwich,” but the important part isn’t the name… it’s the fact that I enjoy eating it.

Rice buried under sauteed shrimp, asparagus, and a yellow bell pepper, garnished with feta cheese and a sliced lemon-stuff olive. The olive is only there because we haven't found any other way we like that particular stuffing option.

Now, when I find a new recipe, I treat it more like the pirate’s code in Pirates of the Caribbean: “the [pirate’s] code is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules.” This shrimp bowl, for example, is very loosely based on a shrimp bowl recipe from Centr. (To be fair, I have made their recipe as written.) Theirs is almost certainly healthier, deliberately balancing the appropriate carbs, greens, and protein. My approach was more cobbled together with ingredients currently available in the house, including leftover rice. Thus the recipe became simply guidelines.

Ultimately, my goal when cooking is to make something we enjoy eating and that we have the ingredients for. Not every meal has to be a fancy attempt to follow a recipe precisely; it’s more important to have a fairly balanced meal that can be assembled in a short period of time.

What’s your recipe’s secret ingredient?

One of the fun things about cooking is learning a recipe and then adding just a touch of something to make it uniquely your own. Your secret ingredient, per se. It’s the crunch of celery in the family potato salad recipe and swapping homegrown chives in for the green onions.

Why am I thinking of secret ingredients? I made guacamole the other day. The traditional guacamole recipe is mashed avocado with lime juice (both for flavor and to slow down the browning), salt and perhaps cilantro, often including onion and tomato. I may have included cilantro when it’s in season (it’s snowing at the moment, so definitely not in season), though I’m more likely to put the cilantro into a homemade salsa. I also tend to skip the tomato. What I do include without fail – my secret ingredient – is curry powder.

Similarly, I add Italian seasoning to my pizza dough. It’s a minor addition to the recipe, so it doesn’t change the consistency of the dough, just adds a little spike of flavor that can be smelled as the dough starts rising and even more when it bakes.

What “secret” ingredient have you added to a recipe?

I forgot to buy bread.

I went grocery shopping Saturday morning and forgot to buy bread. (I generally make rolls, but I prefer to buy loaves of bread.) After dropping off some spare raspberries and strawberries that afternoon, I considered stopping somewhere to buy bread, but there aren’t any shops on that particular route home. So I deferred the chore until Sunday.

Early Sunday morning, it occurred to me that farmers markets are open again, and there was probably at least one near me on a Sunday. For those of you unfamiliar with farmers markets, they’re typically outdoor markets with fresh produce and other shopping that are only at that location one day a week. They frequently have fresh bakery products, which is what drew me to Google this fine morning.

Sure enough, I found a Sunday morning farmers market five miles away. Shortly after eight in the morning, I headed out, hoping to find bread and perhaps some bite-sized tomatoes.

As you can see, my mission was successful… there were several stands with baked goods, one specifically with loaves of bread, where I selected a sourdough rye bread. Directly across from it was a produce stand where I procured a multi-colored selection of small tomatoes.

The unexpected purchase, however, was the delightful find for the day. Anybody who has gone to the nearby Renaissance Festival has experienced the delicious smell of roasted nuts with tempting samples luring the passerby in. Apparently, the Geneva French Market includes freshly roasted nuts as well… with the choice of whiskey-roasted or vanilla nuts, produced by Nuts To Go. They are, in fact, quite tasty.

And that is why I went looking for a recipe – Honey Whiskey Roasted Pecans | Kara Lydon – and am wondering what effect using different whiskeys will have on the flavor.

Altering a recipe

I’ve mentioned adapting recipes before, particularly in my post about Evolving Traditions, where I mentioned modifying Dad’s omelet recipe and Mom’s stuffed mushroom one. Those are tried and true recipes that I grew up with, and I know how they’re supposed to taste, much like switching from boiling to steaming artichokes. If I find a recipe in a cookbook or online, I usually try it as written first. There are, of course, exceptions, like the Coconut Almond Cranberry Chicken recipe I cooked this week.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with the original recipe. But one of the reasons I went looking for a recipe was a bag of fresh cranberries lingering in my fridge. So I was already replacing the dried cranberries with fresh cranberry sauce (2 cups of cranberries, 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 brown sugar) made earlier in the day. (If you’ve never made your own cranberry sauce, the most important tip is to keep the lid most of the way on the pot – this reduces the bright red spots that splatter all over your stovetop as the cranberries pop.)

I prefer chicken thighs to breasts, and I enjoy eating the skin, which makes chopping it into bite-sized pieces… impractical. It’s hard to find boneless chicken still with the skin on. And it’s easier to cook large pieces of chicken in the oven than on the stove. The move to the oven, and a decent amount of liquid in the recipe, meant cooking in my cast iron Dutch oven.

I’m a fan of crispy skin, so I started by heating a small amount (maybe a tablespoon) of olive oil in the pan on the stove, then placing the chicken thighs facedown for a few minutes, just to brown them. Since I bought a family size pack of chicken, I did this in two waves, while preheating the oven to 350 degrees.

Once all the thighs were lightly browned, I returned all of them to the pan in a ring, stacked on the chunks of red potatoes I added, and on each other, then topped them with chopped ginger and almonds, followed by the coconut milk and cranberries. The extra liquid in the cranberry sauce made up for the fact that I could only find 13.5 or 13.66 ounce cans, rather than the 15 ounce can the recipe calls for. I dashed the cinnamon on top of everything. (OK, I forgot the cinnamon and noticed the container on the counter as I was putting the pan into the oven.)

After 40 minutes, I increased the heat to 400 degrees, and left the chicken in for another 20 minutes. Spinach doesn’t need to be cooked very long, so I waited until I pulled the pan out of the oven to mix it in. This is the ideal time (I realized in hindsight) to shove the chicken into another dish and crisp up the skin for about 10 minutes in the oven, which will make it easier to stir the spinach into the liquid. The other option is to shift a couple pieces of chicken, stir in some spinach, then shift a couple other pieces. They both work… but crispy skin… yum.

Overall, the result was delicious. Among other things, the almonds stayed delightfully crunchy. The flavor is presumably fairly close to the original recipe, with a slightly different presentation.

How to make the perfect omelet

Don’t let the picture fool you, I judge an omelet on its flavor. If I want food with a perfect appearance, I’ll get it from a restaurant. I generally chalk it up to luck if my omelet looks good too. I realize it’s more a matter of me being patient while cooking, but hey, let’s call it luck.

A one egg omelet, still in the non-stick pan

There are some differences, of course, if cooking multiple omelets; I’ll try to account for them. The most important part is the filling… if you just wanted to eat an egg, you could have fried, boiled, or poached it. You’ll want to pick two or three items that have complementary flavors. My default fillings are mushrooms and cheese, with a lot of variance as to what cheese I use. Costco sells any amazing Merlot cheese, and Swiss is a perennial favorite. (If you don’t like cheese, skip the cheese part! I had an amazing omelet without cheese the time we went to Philadelphia.)

If I’m cooking for just myself or one other person, I sauté any vegetables in the same pan that I’ll be cooking the omelet(s) in, starting with a tablespoon of melted butter. If I’m including garlic, I drop that in after I’ve flipped the (usually) mushrooms and turn off the burner. There’s a 50/50 chance that I’ll wash the knife and cutting board at this stage, forgetting that I need them to slice the cheese. If you’re only making one omelet, that single tablespoon of butter is all you’ll need, though make allowance for the pan you’re using. If I’m making omelets for more than two people, I’ll prepare the filling in a separate pan (if it’s something that needs cooking – leftovers work too), but I still mix each omelet individually.

While the vegetables are cooking, I crack an egg into a mixing bowl and add milk. As a general rule, a large egg is equivalent to about 1/4 cup of liquid, and I eyeball the milk at about half of that (so 1/8th cup, which is 2 tablespoons). If you want a two or three egg omelet, just adjust up with the same proportions. I dash a bit of salt and pepper in before I whisk the milk and egg together.

When the vegetables (if any) are cooked, I move them from the pan to another dish. This is the important part – the pan should still be hot, but not so hot that the egg bubbles when you add it to the pan. Pour the egg mix into the pan, make sure it spreads out, and turn the burner back on medium. (Yeah, sometimes I forget and wonder why my omelet isn’t ready yet.) If needed, rotate the pan until the top of the omelet is almost solid, then any meat (sandwich meat works great) to one half of the omelet, then the sautéed vegetables, followed by cheese (if desired).

Flip the half of the omelet you didn’t put anything on over the fillings. This is when you find out if your omelet will look perfect, or if it’s just going to taste perfect. If you didn’t include cheese, just give it a minute to finish cooking and move it to a plate. If you included cheese, turn the burner down to medium low… cheese takes a bit to melt, and you don’t want to burn the omelet in the process. At this point, the timing is going to vary based on the cheese… try to find that balance between compulsively checking it because you’re super hungry and you really want the cheese melted.

If you’re cooking multiple omelets, I’ve found about half a tablespoon of butter is the right amount for subsequent omelets. If you’re cooking in a non-stick pan, this is optional, but it’s partially for the flavor.

Just in case you jumped to the end as if this were a food blog, here’s the basic recipe: for each egg, 1/8 cup of milk, fillings of your choice. If any fillings are raw, cook them first and remove them from the pan. Cook the egg mix until it begins to solidify, add fillings (start with flattest, then vegetables, and top with cheese) to one side and flip the other side of the omelet to cover it.

Pear and Gorgonzola Waffles

Years ago, when gifted with multiple boxes of Harry & David pears, I went looking for pear recipes to avoid losing the wonderful pears to our slow rate of eating them. I found this recipe on a website called DailyBuzz, and the printout I have linked to Epicurious.

Having received a gift of pears recently, it came up in a Zoom call, and having saved the URL on the printed copy, I went looking… well, the DailyBuzz website is gone, and I can’t find the recipe on Epicurious… good thing I printed it!

Pear and Gorgonzola Waffles

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
6 tablespoons butter, melted & cooled
2 large eggs
1 ½-2 ripe pears, diced
¾ cup crumbled gorgonzola
Oil for waffle iron

If not being served immediately, preheat your oven to 250 degrees. I prefer to mix all the ingredients and then preheat the waffle iron; that will vary depending on your speed and the waffle iron.

Top half shows the batter, a brush with oil, a measuring cup on a sauced, and the waffle pan. Bottom half shows a pear & gorgonzola waffle with a fork.

Combine dry ingredients – flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt – in a large bowl.
Whisk wet ingredients – buttermilk, butter, and eggs – in a small bowl.
Stir wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
Fold in diced pears and gorgonzola.

After preheating the waffle iron, brush it lightly with oil and dump an appropriate amount of batter in. For a standard waffle iron, this will probably be ½ cup; a Belgian waffle iron may need a full cup. The Pampered Chef Waffle Puff Pan instructions call for ¾ cup, but does best with a cup of this recipe, probably because of the pear chunks.

Cook waffles according to manufacturer’s instructions until they’re browned and cooked through. For this particular recipe, that may be a couple minutes extra, as the pear chunks make them fall apart.

As you cook them, transfer to a rack in the preheated oven to keep warm and crisp. Continue until batter is gone – makes 6 waffles on the Pampered Chef Waffle Puff Pan, probably about 10 on a standard style waffle iron.

Also, for easy printing, here’s a PDF version of the recipe:

Pear and Gorgonzola Waffles Download

Evolving traditions

When you learned about Thanksgiving in school, you probably learned all about the pilgrims and Native Americans who gathered. But did you learn that Abraham Lincoln established the date for Thanksgiving in 1863? No? Me neither. But we can be fairly sure that neither the pilgrims or Lincoln purchased jellied cranberries at the grocery store; that’s a newer tradition.

This year in particular is giving us the opportunity to evolve our traditions, as many of us remain isolated from our extended families, waiting for this raging pandemic to fade. We turn to modern technology, beyond the simple phone calls to distant relatives, to video calls where we can see our family. (Err… or would have, if my mother had forwarded the Zoom information before the call. Sorry I missed it!)

It got me thinking about some of the things I grew up with that I’ve changed. Dad used to make mushroom omelets for Sunday morning brunch; I make them, but not always on Sunday. And I typically make them with one egg, whereas he made them with two, with varied ingredients as the filling. Though mostly just mushrooms and cheese.

A recent breakfast – breakfast sausages, fried egg, and spinach & onion stuffed mushrooms

On the subject of mushrooms, one of the recipes Mom would make occasionally (really occasionally… she didn’t cook often, thank heavens) was spinach & onion stuffed mushrooms. Back in the day, this meant buying frozen spinach (ewwww), a package of onion dip seasoning, sour cream, and obviously, mushrooms. Adapting this for what I typically stock in my pantry means that I use fresh spinach and a lovely tub of French onion dip, and a variety of mushroom types.

We are constantly adapting to our surroundings, changing our habits based on availability and desire. Humanity is resilient, largely due to our ability to evolve for different situations and continue learning throughout our lives. Hopefully this year, you’ve learned enough about technology to give virtual hugs to the family you’re missing at the holidays, with the hope that next year’s holidays can be celebrated in person.

Find something that makes you smile.

This year has given us all some time for introspection. Well, that or video games. And if that’s what makes you smile, go for it. We each have different needs.

My garden makes me smile. Looking out at the flowers, stopping to smell the peonies (which smell like roses!), admiring the sunflower that has sprung up in the keyhole bed… particularly after losing all the sunflowers I planted out back to some hungry critter, and unsure whether the front yard sunflowers will survive whatever’s leaving holes in the leaves.

But I can’t complain too much about the critters… I just smiled at a rabbit hopping through my back yard. And have you ever watched a woodchuck run? It’s like a low to the ground penguin waddle, with hips shifting back and forth as it leaves a trail in my grass. Of course, that may be who ate my pea seedlings. It’s hard to tell, I’m not spotting the rabbits or woodchucks in the raised beds.

Keyhole garden with prominent sunflower (no flower yet)

At a guess, it’s birds eating my strawberries, but at least that’s the actual fruit. If the sunflowers had grown to full height, most of the seeds would have been consumed by the birds. The peas probably would have been shared between us and the woodchuck.

The cats June and Diane sitting on a cat rug

And then there are the indoor critters, sources of amusement and frustration. I walked in to these faces this morning. I was immediately suspicious. This was after breakfast, so they weren’t expecting food, and the third cat, Arwen, wasn’t in sight. Arwen is the main troublemaker, the one who figured out how to open the crockpot over Memorial Day weekend, landing a paw in my chicken soup. (Knowing it was possible, Diane then followed her example.) As it turns out, Arwen was lounging in the bay window, and I still have no idea why these two were eagerly awaiting my return from the garden.

Pork chops with cherry sauce, peas, garlic mashed potatoes with chives

I also happen to enjoy food, eating it and preparing it, given enough time. And it’s a mix of things I grew up with – like omelets, which Dad would make on Sunday mornings, grilling on my Big Green Egg – a gift from Dad, or making a pizza from scratch. We’ve developed a Friday night pizza habit, and while the multigrain crust is pretty much the same each time, the toppings vary from week to week, and sometimes I switch from tomato sauce to pesto.

This is by no means the entire list of things that make me smile, just a few things that came to mind. What makes you smile?